In this section:

NOTE: This section provides supplementary load calendar information and assumes an in depth knowledge of the Calendar subsystem and the use of calendars in other subsystems.

This topic looks, in greater detail, at the use of aggregate load calendars. A worked example illustrates the possible uses of aggregate calendars.

The purpose of load calendars is to define periods of time over which student load is calculated. Student load values can be used in:

• deriving a student's attendance type, i.e. full or part time attendance
• as the basis for assessing the fees for which a student may be liable
• calculating EFTSU values for various purposes
• reporting student load to government

A load calendar can belong to only one academic calendar and usually spans only one census date.

A teaching calendar may span more than one load calendar and may apportion load to each of the load calendars it spans.

A fee calendar should be associated with only one load calendar.

In using load calendars, as described above, various periods of time may need to be considered. For instance, students studying in a summer teaching period may have their load calculated for that period for government reporting purposes. Their load for the summer period may also contribute to their total annual load for the purpose of calculating an attendance type based annual fee. In addition, enrolment checking (forced attendance mode/type, cross-element restrictions, certain encumbrances) may need to consider the student's enrolment in more than one teaching period, and this is determined by the relationship between enrolment, load, teaching and academic calendars.

Aggregate load calendars provide the flexibility to be able to use standard load calendars when considering load related to specific teaching periods, and to use aggregate load calendars when a consolidated view of load is required (such as for the derivation of attendance type for a year). Prior to the introduction of aggregate load calendars, it was possible to establish load calendar structures which could result in double counting of load. Aggregate load calendars allow structures which help avoid this possibility.

Consider an institution with two standard semester based teaching periods and six non-standard teaching periods, all subordinate to the 1999 academic calendar.

Table 1

A load calendar can be established to correspond to each teaching period. These load calendars collect students' load and can be used to calculate a student's attendance type and/or EFTSU for the teaching period, to determine the load contribution of discontinued unit attempts and for government reporting. EFTSU and attendance type values could be used for the assessment of teaching period related fees.

Table 2A

Point-in-time load and attendance type calculations are used to display the derived attendance type and load (EFTSU) of student course attempts, in ENRF3000 and in INQF1200. They may also be used for the calculation of INSTITUTION fees. A course attempt may involve the study of units in a number of standard and non-standard teaching periods. The display of attendance type and load is likely to be most meaningful if the values are derived as at key census dates. In addition, enrolment checking of forced attendance attributes, and/or cross-element restrictions (e.g. cross location), and/or attendance type/credit point encumbrances occurs for units in those teaching periods related to the enrolment period via a load calendar.

In our example, the institution wants to derive point-in-time values as at three dates, the Autumn Census (31 March), the Spring Census (31 August) and for the Summer using the census dates of any Summer teaching periods. The standard calendars in the earlier tables cannot be used for these derivations as no single load calendar captures all the load contribution at any of these census dates.

An INSTITUTION fee is charged for particular individual fee periods, and fee periods are associated with single load calendars. Associating fee calendars with standard load calendars could result in a student enrolled in non-standard teaching periods being charged the fee more than once.

Aggregate Calendars are created to sum the load from contributing standard calendars and allow calculations and derivations to be based on the aggregated load.

Aggregated load calendars:

The aggregate load calendars created for this institution are:

Table 3

An aggregate load calendar has no independent load calendar structure of its own recorded in ENRF01K0. Instead the aggregate calendar inherits structure from its subordinate standard load calendars.

LOAD-CAL-1 and LOAD-CAL-2 are appropriate load calendars to collect load for government semesters 1 and 2 in government statistics. Load calendars LOAD-CAL-3, LOAD-CAL-4 and LOAD-CAL-5 could be created to collect load for government semesters 3, 4 and 5. These could either be aggregate load calendars, superior to relevant standard load calendars, or they could be standard load calendars themselves, linked directly to the relevant teaching calendars (in ENRF01K0). The latter approach is illustrated in Table 2B.

Table 2B

The institution in our scenario determines that an annual service fee should apply to all students. Different charge rates are to apply to full-time and part-time students.

A fee calendar (FEE-YEAR 01/01/1999 31/12/1999) is created in CALF0220. A fee calendar should be linked to only one load calendar.

No single load calendar capable of capturing load from all relevant teaching periods exists. A new aggregate load calendar is created to capture all load incurring student unit attempts in 1999.

Table 4

LOAD-CAL-Y is linked to the fee calendar (FEE-YEAR 01/01/1999 31/12/1999) in FINF1720. Its attendance type load ranges are defined for full and part-time, in CRSF1170. It is linked to its subordinate standard load calendars in CALF0330. All load calendars in Table 2A are linked as subordinates as all contribute load in 1999.

LOAD-CAL-Y sums the load for all the unit attempts, in any of the teaching periods related to the subordinate load calendars, for each student being assessed. The total load for the student is compared to the attendance type load ranges of LOAD-CAL-Y and the fee is assessed at the rate applicable to the student's attendance type.

Load calendars can be created to derive student load for any grouping of teaching periods that are subordinate to the same academic period. As a consequence, student fee administrators have many options for fee types and fee assessment rates for studies in particular teaching periods.

For example, consider HECS liable students who, in addition to their enrolment in standard teaching periods, also take units offered in non-standard teaching periods. A 1997 re-interpretation of the HECS legislation now permits institutions to charge tuition fees to HECS students who enrol in units in non-standard teaching periods, either in an attempt to redeem prior failures or to accelerate progress through a course.

The institution in our scenario has six non-standard teaching periods in 1999 (Table 1). Each instance of these teaching calendars was made subordinate to the 1999 academic calendar. Unit discontinuation date criteria were established and unit offerings created. A load calendar was created corresponding to each teaching period. In addition, LOAD-CAL-Y was created for the calculation of student's load for a year and hence the assessment of annual fees.

Student A is enrolled in two unit offerings in non-standard teaching period WINTER as well as a SEM-2 unit. Without varying the student's HECS payment option, tuition fees can be charged for units studied in the non-standard teaching period, HECS can be calculated for the SEM-2 unit and an annual amenities fee can be charged based on the student's attendance type as determined from the load aggregated under LOAD-CAL-Y.

Student B chose to accelerate progress in her course and enrolled in one unit in Open Learning teaching period 1-OLA, 1 unit in SUMMER teaching period, four units in standard teaching period SEM-1 and four units in standard teaching period SEM-2. Tuition fees were calculated for the two units in non-standard teaching periods and HECS calculated for SEM-1 units. The annual amenities fee was calculated based on the student's attendance type as determined from the load aggregated under LOAD-CAL-Y.

The institution has decided to introduce a new INSTITUTION fee - a Summer services fee, applicable to all students studying over summer in non-standard teaching periods. A Summer fee calendar must be established, with which this fee will be associated. To determine which students the fee applies to, it is necessary to find which students incurred load in the Summer period. A student may be studying units in more than one teaching period during Summer. Using standard load calendars to identify students with load could result in a student being identified in more than one load period and hence charged the fee more than once. In any case only one load calendar can be associated with the fee period. To overcome these issues, the aggregate load calendar SUMMCENSUS (Table 3) is associated with the Summer fee calendar. Student B is identified as incurring load in the fee period and is charged the fee.

Table 5

In this case, the institution allows enrolment in all teaching periods for the year except WINTER, 3-OLA and 4-OLA, in ENR-PER-1. A second enrolment period ENR-PER-2 caters for enrolment in SEM-2, WINTER, 3-OLA and 4-OLA. Enrolment checking considers only those load calendars which have a subordinate relationship to an Enrolment calendar. There are many options for setup, including:

• option 1 - make each individual load calendar, corresponding to the relevant teaching periods, subordinate to ENR-PER-1 or
• option 2 - create a new single aggregate load calendar, with all of the standard load calendars corresponding to the relevant teaching periods as subordinates, and make it subordinate to ENR-PER-1.
• option 3 - use a mix of aggregate and standard load calendars to achieve the desired result. In this case AUTMCENSUS, LOAD-SUMM, LOAD-CAL-2

Options 1 and 2 are easiest to manage.

Callista considers only those load calendars directly linked to the enrolment period in which a student is pre-enrolled. If no pre-enrolment detail exists for a student, all load calendars related to any enrolment calendar in the context academic period are considered; but only those to which the students enrolled teaching periods have load contribution have any effect.

 Student B

Remember Student B who enrolled in one unit in Open Learning teaching period 1-OLA, 1 unit in SUMMER teaching period, four units in standard teaching period SEM-1 and four units in standard teaching period SEM-2. If we assume that the OLA and SUMMER units have been successfully enrolled, then as we are attempting to enrol the SEM-1 units, enrolment checking will be considering the contribution of units in all five teaching periods. If, for example, our student was enrolled in a course as part-time and by adding her SEM-1 units her load exceeded the annual upper load limit for part-time study, a warning message would be displayed.

Load calendars provide flexibility and control.

They are generally established after the framework of subsystem related calendars has been created. They are best created by systematically working through the system identifying where individual load calendars are required and then creating them.

It is generally the linking of load calendars to other calendars, or the inclusion of specific date aliases in a load calendar, which determines how they are used. This means that a load calendar can usually be created for a specific purpose without impacting on other areas of load calendar functionality.

Individual load calendars may be re-used between subsystems where an existing calendar is identified as being suitable for that purpose. They may also be re-used by making them subordinate to aggregated load calendars. Aggregate load calendars are a simple way of considering multiple shorter periods of time.